Chapter 30: Reaping the Treasure Pouch
"What's going on!"
"Boss, what are you doing?"
"Damn it Raghav, are you trying to kill us after we've served our purpose? There are endless gold coins here, why bother?"
As the rope hit the ground, three exclamations came from the monitor on the phone.
Marcus stood outside the God's Well and checked himself; the 10 exorcism talismans on his chest had turned to ash.
Although he had a feeling these things were useless, he hadn't expected them to be this useless; they were clearly a beginner's practice piece.
However, it also confirmed that the god in the legends of Western India was indeed not a proper deity.
After all, the mainstream religion in India is Hinduism, with Brahma as the god of creation and Lakshmi as the goddess of wealth, wisdom, and fertility.
This goddess of prosperity in the west clearly conflicts with the Hindu divine roles.
'Hastar,' this god of greed, doesn't resemble a god at all; instead, it's more like a mad beast.
"Stop arguing, do as I say from now on,"
Marcus said to the monitor, then took out a commercial drone and two pairs of pliers.
The drone, about the size of two hands, was a multi-rotor aircraft capable of vertical takeoff, landing, and hovering, with a payload of twenty pounds—classified as commercial-grade equipment.
He opened the well cover and threw two pairs of pliers down into the well.
"Now, you two pick up the pliers. A monster carrying wealth will emerge shortly; this monster fears flour."
"I'll lure it with food. You two use the pliers to grab the money pouch from the monster's waist. Once you take it off, you'll have enough wealth for a lifetime."
Marcus then took out a dough doll, tied it to the bottom of the drone with a rubber band, and piloted the drone into the well. He quickly closed the well cover.
Inside the 'Hastar' lair, the two men picked up the pliers, bewildered. They didn't understand Marcus's meaning—what monster, what money pouch?
"Raghav, I was wrong. You're a million times more greedy than I imagined. Let me go, I'll help you."
Vinayak knew he had no chance of struggling.
"Untie him."
Only after hearing Marcus's command did the two men untie the ropes binding Vinayak.
The drone then began to fly down the passage, hovering in mid-air above the lair.
The crimson inner walls of the lair began to ripple, the ground became sticky, and a bulge appeared on the wall. A humanoid creature covered in crimson flesh crawled out from within.
It knelt on the ground, stretching out its pleading hands, and hissed at the dough doll tied to the drone.
"God of Greed, kneeling for a piece of dough?"
"Hastar, where is your dignity as a god!"
Marcus, outside the well cover, controlled the drone to hover a short distance in the air through the monitor, dodging Hastar's leap.
Hastar ignored the voice coming from the monitor, only hissing again as it looked at the dough doll, climbing up the lair wall, trying to pounce on it.
"Stop standing there, give me the pliers."
Vinayak snapped at his two still-dazed companions.
At the same time, he reached out and snatched the pliers from Yellow Hair. Yellow Hair's right hand was injured, and he couldn't even hold the pliers properly with his left hand; he was just a tool used by Marcus to test the God's Well.
Marcus maneuvered the drone, swaying left and right, sometimes high, sometimes low, dodging Hastar's relentless climbing and leaping along the inner wall.
Hastar roared with increasing impatience, even kneeling in submission, but failing to obtain the dough, it leaped again, landing near the tunnel entrance.
With the skill of a professional operator, Marcus lowered the drone by three feet, managing to dodge Hastar.
Vinayak, standing inside the flour circle, used his pliers to swiftly grab at Hastar, but only managed to open the pouch at Hastar's waist, spilling a pile of gold coins.
The clinking of the coins attracted the attention of the dark-skinned middle-aged man, whose initial stunned silence transformed into greed for gold; he too extended his pliers, waiting for his chance.
Enraged by the two men inside the flour circle who were constantly jabbing it with their pliers, Hastar lunged at them, roaring as it extended its bloody hand.
The moment the bloody hand touched the flour circle, sparks flew from its palm, accompanied by a sizzling sound like roasting meat. Hastar roared in pain and withdrew its bloody claw.
The growing hunger as it became more alert drove Hastar increasingly mad. It began chasing the drone around the flour circle, completely ignoring the two pliers that kept reaching out from its sides.
After dozens of attempts, Vinayak, having learned from experience, precisely inserted the pliers into the gap between the money pouch and Hastar's waist, using Hastar's running momentum to pull in the opposite direction.
SNAP!
The palm-sized, bright red money pouch was finally pried off and fell to the ground.
Hastar sensed something was wrong and instantly stopped its leaping body.
Its greed for the gold coins temporarily resisted its insane hunger, and it turned to retrieve the money pouch.
Vinayak and the dark-skinned middle-aged man, Habib, reacted quickly, simultaneously extending their pliers to grab the money pouch and pulling it back into the flour circle.
Hastar missed its target, roaring as it crashed into the flour circle, only to be reduced to ashes and disappear on the ground.
Another bulge appeared on the inner wall, and a complete Hastar tore through the membrane and emerged, continuing to roar, staring at the pouch, then at the dough, extremely agitated.
The dark-skinned middle-aged man greedily picked up the money pouch and gently poured it on the ground, revealing a pile of gold coins. This spurred Hastar to crash into the flour circle again.
The dark-skinned man, Habib, and the man with yellow hair exchanged a glance, then turned to Vinayak, their eyes filled with malice.
"Fools, what are you two thinking? Look down at your situation!"
Vinayak took a half-step back, then, afraid of stepping out of the flour circle, quickly stepped forward again, pointing to the ground.
The two looked down and saw that the thick layer of flour had disappeared by half.
"It's the slime on the ground! Since Hastar woke up, this slime has been constantly consuming flour, damn it!" the man with yellow hair exclaimed.
"Raghav, my good friend, how should I hand over the money pouch to you?"
Vinayak asked the camera.
Marcus quietly watched the monitor. He had been quite curious to see which of the three would be left to hand over the money pouch, but he hadn't expected Vinayak to still have a sliver of sense.
The drone evaded the attack of Hastar, which regenerated from the inner wall behind it, and landed at the feet of the three people in the flour circle. Hastar circled the flour circle frantically, roaring.
"Tie the money pouch to the drone, take the dough doll and feed it to Hastar to distract it. I'll drop the flour."
"No, boss, what if you don't put down the rope? We'll come up with the money pouch!"
The man with yellow hair was furious, afraid that Marcus would take the money pouch and abandon them.
"Shahu, I don't mind having a few people start over after you're all dead,"
Marcus replied calmly.
"Boss, I was wrong, I lost my mind, forgive me, I'm your loyal right-hand man."
A sliver of reason returned to the man with yellow hair, and he quickly apologized.
"It's alright, I'm not angry."
Vinayak snatched the money pouch from the dark-skinned middle-aged man, took the dough doll from the drone, hung the money pouch on it, and couldn't help but say,
"Raghav, this isn't fair."
"Fairness only appears when needed. Do we need it now, my friend?"
Marcus asked calmly.
"No, it's not necessary."
Vinayak paused, looked around, and sighed.
"Then please throw the dough a little further away, thank you."
Marcus controlled the drone, adjusting its rotors to hover three feet high, ready to take off at any moment.
Above ground, Marcus watched the screen with satisfaction. Three greedy men, one cursed god, and a bag of infinite wealth.
All according to plan.
(End of Chapter)
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